Robert
Townsend is a multi-talent, having credits as actor, writer, director
and producer under his belt. No surprise that Townsend fulfilled all of
these positions on The Meteor Man, the afro-American answer to
all the other super hero guys in the hood. Here, Townsend plays
Jefferson Reed, a normal teacher who avoids conflicts especially with
the ghetto's nasty street gang 'Golden Lords' until one day he is hit by
a meteor which transfers superhero powers to him. Featuring an all black
cast with such promising names as James Earl Jones or Bill Cosby, one
would have expected that the film was far away from dying a quick
cinematic death but Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993) Dinosaurs
were hunting for a record gross and literally ate The Meteor Man
alive. Thus, it performed even weaker at the box office than the far
more worse Super Mario Bros. (1993). Although the film is
carrying a social critic message, it clearly suffers from various
problems such as poor visual effects, a general lack of energy and a
terrible hack job done during post production as an attempt to 'save'
the film but actually robbing it from the last bit of identity. What we
get instead is a generally uninteresting main character, a James Earl
Jones in his most embarrassing role and a Bill Cosby who does not have
any lines except for some barking (well granted, this might not be too
far away from reality).

The score:

Scoring the film was composer Cliff
Eidelman, who was traded among score fans as the most promising newcomer
of the 90's after his impressive output on Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country (1991) and Christopher Columbus: The
Discovery (1992). It is fair to say that a flub like The Meteor
Man was not healthy for his career and he would probably have been
better off had he just passed on the job. However, Eidelman fans can
consider themselves lucky that he did not do so because compared to
other elements of the film, its adventurous and comic score is clearly on the
better side. He provided the meteor and its powers with a 12-note
signature fanfare as introduced in the "Main Title" that would later
transform into a hero theme for
Jeff after he got hit by that meteor, masters its special powers and is
ultimately using them to fight the
gang lords. Those gold-haired bad guys received a bouncy, nervous
motif with low brass strikes which first appears in "Initiation" as they
are chasing Jeff through the streets of the ghetto. This villain motif
clearly resembles some of Eidelman's action music for Star Trek VI:
The Undiscovered Country (1991). At certain moments the temp-track
seems to shine through as the orchestration of some cues is strikingly
similar to those of Bruce Broughton or Alan Silvestri with a tad of
Goldsmith but Eidelman apparently handled it rather well.

After the introduction of the obvious
villain-theme, the "Meteor Strikes" Jeff which is musically supported by
an eerie combination of strings and mystical choir followed by a warm
emotional theme for piano as Jeff is brought to the hospital. A lot of
mickey-mousing appears throughout the score that underlines the more
comic parts in the film when Jeff is clumsily exploring his powers.
These rather tiresome passages, including "Poor Lewis", "Stromberg
Theory", "Hospital Vision", "Ellington Speaks", "Jet Magazine", "Coffee
Service" or "X-Ray Vision" dominate the score's first half and mainly
consist of woodwinds and strings in Peter-and-the-Wolf fashion. Things
start to kick off way too slowly with several bigger cues such as the
slow, dark build up in "Jeff Protects Dad", or "Rebirth" with a powerful
rendition of the villains motif that goes into a first outburst of the
hero theme as Jeff is running away from gang members and suddenly starts
flying for the first time. A couple of shorter suspense cues follow
before some nice, tender material based around the emotional theme for a
soft solo trumpet enters in "Mrs. Walker". Everything suddenly becomes
rousing and heroic again with "Off To Work" and "Cleaning Up The Hood".

"Gaarden Of Eatin'" offers a stylistic
break with some tender lounge music that comes with a gentle beat,
synths and solo sax as Jeff is using his powers to transform a small
waste spot into a vegetable garden. As silly as the scene might have
looked but Eidelman's heart-warming arrangement made it a little more
powerful. Temp-track worries will overcome the Silvestri-fans after
listening to "Slinuy's Like Life" which is basically the dark 3-note
motif for Biff Tannen from the score for Back To The Future Part 2
(1989) while "The Impostor" is terribly close to "Tunnel Chase" from the
same score. "Jeff Catches Bullets" has a nice rendition of the heroic
theme and a short emotional passage that stops way too quickly before
being really developed. With the suspenseful "Forced Entry", the score
is slowly approaching the final fight but not without revisiting the
under-used family piano theme once again in "Jeff Says He Will Leave".
As the finale starts, the tracks thankfully become longer with more
solid musical development such as some cool variations of the villains
motif in "Double Cross". "Meteor Spill" offers the first full statement
of the hero theme's second half and is further developed into a short
but excitingly fun passage during "Woratg Duel" as Bill Cosby saves the
day. A great stand-alone statement of the entire hero theme comes with
"Ultimate Hero" and a nice bunch of fanfares in "Bloods & Crypts Unite"
create a victorious finale with some beautifully bittersweet bits
shining through.

RATING:

Score as
heard in the film:
81%

Score as
heard on CD:69%

TOTAL:
75%

The presentation:

Eidelman's score for The Meteor Man has
never received a release. A poor sounding 30 minutes bootleg was making
the round but many people wanted more with better sound. Now,
years after the film's theatrical release and the appearance of the
bootleg, there is a new one and it does not only have the entire 64
minutes of score but this time in superb, crystal clear sound quality as
well. I have absolutely no idea where these things are coming from... so
suddenly when everyone has already given up hope of ever getting this
material. Since this is an unofficial CD-R pressing there is no artwork
or bonus features such as liner notes. Luckily, the score is part of the
MGM/Sony catalogue which might be a good starting point for a future
official release as a limited edition CD.

Presentation by
the Label:Bootleg

Summary:

Cliff Eidelman was noticeably trying
his best with the troubled Meteor Man but the resulting score is
far from being his best even though it features one of his best main
themes. The music is simply not narrative enough for a running time of
over 60 minutes. Several short tracks and mickey-mousing cues break the
flow and there are various individual ideas that, while being certainly
very good, hardly connect well with each other because they crop up and
descent into nowhere. Especially inconsistent is the score's first half
but this is getting a bit better near the end, sadly when it is almost
too late. Several temp-track moments don't help either but the nice hero
main theme and the various smaller motifs for the gang and the emotional
stuff are a nice compensation. If only some of those themes had been
more fully developed and thus supported the score's narrative qualities
it could be a real winner. Not that Meteor Man is a weak score since it
has its moments especially in the film. On CD this one is a two-face
with incredibly boring and incredibly exciting parts.